Kids who watch porn won’t necessarily turn into sex offenders

TheConversation: Recent media campaigns have linked children watching online pornography to an increase in the number of school children committing sexual assault. One article linked school students sexually assaulting each other to the rise in online porn. But is there evidence children watching online porn is linked to an increase in sexual offending? We know the public is concerned about the potential harm to young people watching online pornography, with a Senate inquiry on the matter due to report towards the end of November 2016. We also know how easy it is for children to watch online porn, not only on the computers in their bedrooms but on their smartphones.

Prescription of Psychotropic Medication after Prison Release Linked to Lower Rate of Violent Reoffending

JAMA: Among released prisoners in Sweden, rates of violent reoffending were lower during periods when individuals were dispensed antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs for addictive disorders, compared with periods in which they were not dispensed these medications, according to a study appearing in the November 1 issue of JAMA.

Violence is less likely in homes where fathers share chores equally

TheConversation: When fathers play an active and equal role in the household and are a positive presence, it relieves the burden of care on mothers and is associated with a household where violence is less likely to take place. Research from Norway has found that the incidence of violence against women or children in equitable homes is three times lower than households where fathers dominate.

Juvenile incarceration yields less schooling, more crime

MIT: Teenagers who are incarcerated tend to have substantially worse outcomes later in life than those who avoid serving time for similar offenses, according to a distinctive new study co-authored by an MIT scholar. “We find that kids who go into juvenile detention are much less likely to graduate from high school and much more likely to end up in prison as adults,” says Joseph Doyle, an economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new paper detailing the results of the study.

High rates of sexual violence against children: A global problem

CDC: Sexual violence against children is a significant problem in many low- and middle-income countries. At least 25 percent of females and 10 percent of males experienced some form of childhood sexual violence in the majority of seven countries studied, according to findings from the Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS) released today in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Neurobiology of Child Neglect/Abuse

Dr Yates. BrainPosts: I had the opportunity to attend the Warren Neuroscience Lecture presented by Dr. Charles Nemeroff in Tulsa, OK on June 2, 2015. Dr. Nemeroff has been an international leader in research in mood and anxiety disorders. His recent focus has been on the effects of adverse childhood environments on risk for adult mood and anxiety disorders. Here are my notes that summarize some of the key points from his lecture.

Bullied teens more likely to have depression later on

Scimex: Bullying in teenage years is strongly associated with depression later on in life, reports UK researchers. They say almost 15 per cent of teens who reported being bullied more than once a week at age 13 were found to be depressed at the age of 18. An accompanying editorial says the results of the study indicate that more work needs to be done to protect vulnerable young people.

Weakening Memories of Crime through Deliberate Suppression

PsychologicaScience: There are some bad memories — whether of a crime or a painful life event — that we’d rather not recall. New research shows that people can successfully inhibit some incriminating memories, reducing the memories’ impact on automatic behaviors and resulting in brain activity similar to that seen in “innocent” participants. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “In real life, many individuals who take memory detection tests want to distort their results. Using a lab-based crime simulation, we examined whether people can indeed suppress guilty memories and avoid detection,” explains lead researcher Xiaoqing Hu of the University of Texas at Austin.

Study examines health factors influence on ex-prisoners’ chances of returning to jail

Melbourne: Ex-prisoners with a history of risky drug use, mental illness or poverty are more likely to end up back behind bars, a new University of Melbourne study has revealed. And those who are obese, are chronically ill or have attempted suicide are more likely to remain in the community, the research found. These are some of the findings from an exploratory study into health-related factors that could be used to predict whether a person released from prison will end up in custody again. It was led by Emma Thomas of the University of Melbourne and is published in Springer’s journal Health & Justice, an open access journal. University of Melbourne Associate Professor Stuart Kinnner is a co-author.

Restricting firearms access for people who misuse alcohol may prevent violence

Loonylabs: Restricting access to firearms for people who misuse alcohol could prevent firearm violence, but policies that more clearly define alcohol misuse should be developed to facilitate enforcement, according to a review of existing research and public policies by the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

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The analysis summarizes studies on binge drinking and other forms of alcohol misuse in association with firearm access and use, including firearm violence. It also describes the shortcomings of existing policies designed to restrict access to firearms among those who are at high risk for violence due to alcohol misuse–particularly people with multiple prior convictions for alcohol-related offenses such as driving while under the influence (DUI).

Feeling disconnected contributes to women’s depression from domestic abuse

Ann Arbor: Women in abusive relationships feel depressed not only from the violence but from the loss of their sense of belonging, a new University of Michigan study finds. In a new study published in Violence Against Women, researchers examined the relationship between domestic abuse, belongingness and depression of 71 female patients in a Southeast primary care clinic. Domestic abuse led to women having greater depressive symptoms, but losing a connection with the spouse, family or home also factored into the depression, said Edward Chang, U-M psychology professor and study's lead author.

What should parents do if their child is bullied at school?

TriplePblog: Having your child bullied at school is one of the greatest fears of parents – and research shows this fear is well founded. School bullying has been described as the single most important threat to the mental health of children and adolescents. Well-controlled studies show that being bullied in primary school increases the risk of serious mental health problems into adolescence and ongoing depression leading well into adulthood.

Substance Use disorders, not Mental Disorders, Predict Future Violence in Youth

Chicago: Most psychiatric disorders -- including depression -- do not predict future violent behavior, according to new Northwestern Medicine longitudinal study of delinquent youth. The only exception is substance abuse and dependence. “Our findings are relevant to the recent tragic plane crash in the French Alps.  Our findings show that no one could have predicted that the pilot -- who apparently suffered from depression - - would perpetrate this violent act,” said corresponding author Linda Teplin, the Owen L. Coon Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “It is not merely a suicide, but an act of mass homicide.”

What makes peaceful neighbours become mass murderers

Nature: It's time to ask uncomfortable questions about the brain mechanisms that allow 'ordinary’ people to turn violent.What happens in the brains of people who go from being peaceable neighbours to slaughtering each other on a mass scale? Back in 1997, neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried at the University of California, Los Angeles, conscious of the recent massacres in Bosnia and Rwanda, described this switch in behaviour in terms of a medical syndrome, which he called ‘Syndrome E’. Nearly 20 years later, Fried brought sociologists, historians, psychologists and neuroscientists together at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Paris to discuss the question anew. At the conference, called 'The brains that pull the triggers', he talked to Nature about the need to consider this type of mass murder in scientific as well as sociological terms, and about the challenge of establishing interdisciplinary dialogue in this sensitive area.

Programs to prevent child sexual abuse increase knowledge and skills but do they reduce risks?

UNSW: Child sexual abuse can have a profound impact on children’s wellbeing and development. Such abuse is associated with numerous adverse outcomes well into adulthood, making its prevention an important social and public health priority. We recently completed a Cochrane Systematic Review on how effective school programs are for preventing child sexual abuse. We found that the programs were moderately effective in arming children with knowledge and skills, and that these may help them avoid some potentially dangerous circumstances. They were also more likely to know where to turn if in trouble. However, it is unknown whether these gains in knowledge and skills actually decrease the likelihood of child sexual abuse.

Bullying worse than abuse for mental health

Scimex: Children who have been bullied by peers are more likely to have worse long-term mental health outcomes than children maltreated by adults, according to a long-running study of more than 5,000 children from the UK and US. Bullied children are around five times more likely to experience anxiety and are nearly twice as likely to report more depression and self-harm at age 18 than children who are maltreated.

Video Game Violence Doesn’t Boost Aggression Among Adults with Autism

APS: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties regulating their emotions and behavior, in addition to the difficulties with social interaction and restricted or repetitive behaviors that are characteristic of ASD. As a result, some have speculated that individuals with ASD may be more susceptible to emotionally arousing content found in violent video games, which could lead to increased aggressive behavior. Over the past several decades, psychological and behavioral scientists have conducted numerous studies exploring the relationship between violent video games and aggression; however, there is little research that sheds light on how this relationship specifically plays out for individuals with ASD. Researcher Christopher Engelhardt and colleagues decided to conduct their own study to investigate the question. Their findings are forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Teaching children in schools about sexual abuse may help them report abuse

Cochrane: Children who are taught about preventing sexual abuse at school are more likely than others to tell an adult if they had, or were actually experiencing sexual abuse. This is according to the results of a new Cochrane Review published in the Cochrane Library 16 April 2015. However, the review's authors say that more research is needed to establish whether school-based programmes intended to prevent sexual abuse actually reduce the incidence of abuse.

Impact of domestic violence on women's mental health

Montreal: In addition to their physical injuries, women who are victims of domestic violence are also at a greater risk of mental health problems such as depression and psychotic symptoms. These are the findings of a study that was just published by a team of researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London in England, the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM), and the University of Montreal.

Domestic violence could harm contraception in women

Plos: Domestic violence affects the choice of birth control in women. According to a recent study, women victims of physical or sexual abuse have less recourse to contraception, which often leads to unwanted pregnancies and abortions, or infections. It's clearly shown that there is  not only a correlation between domestic violence and inadequate contraception, but a causal relationship. Affected women are more likely to use contraception than their male partners can not refuse. Contraceptive injection is often used to or sterilization in developing countries, while intrauterine devices are most often used in the West. Condom use is then less than expected. Thus, according to figures released by WHO, it is not surprising that women in Africa who are victims of domestic violence have a three times higher risk of HIV infection. In the future, it will be necessary for global initiatives to improve access to contraception to consider domestic violence, says study author, Lauren Maxwell. In all cases, women should be examined to detect signs of domestic violence, and men should not participate in consultations if this factor was removed earlier.